The following discussion of the background to the invention is intended to facilitate an understanding of the present invention only. It should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgement or admission that any of the material referred to was published, known or part of the common general knowledge of the person skilled in the art in any jurisdiction as at the priority date of the invention.
Mobile devices such as smartphones have recently surpassed the conventional desktop or laptop PCs as a popular means for people to connect to the internet, to connect with one another, and/or play online games. This in part is fueled by social networks and mobile software applications. The main advantage of mobile phones is in their ability to be “Always On” or connected to the Internet wherever the user is. Mobile phone users may receive and/or respond to Instant messaging messages, “Facebook™” tags, “Tweets™” instantly in real time wherever the users are, as long as data cellular connection (GSM, GPRS, 3G, LTE, 4G etc.) can be established.
The above advantage of mobile phone complements markets where majority of telecommunication carrier subscribers prefer mobile data post-paid plans. Subscribers of these post-paid plans generally do not mind paying more per month to have unlimited Internet data access or a data usage capped at a relatively larger size, for example 12 Gigabytes (GB).
However, providing “always on” Internet or data connection has remained a challenge for telecommunications carriers in markets dominated by users who prefer “prepaid plans” (or “pay-as-you-go” plans). In these markets, users are less willing to pay a relatively larger subscription fee for internet access. A typical prepaid plan is based on a pay-per-specified-time model, such as 10 pesos for 30 minutes of fast Internet connection. Another variation to the pay-per-specified time model may be a daily “always on” access to only social networking sites such as Facebook™ or Twitter™ for 20 pesos per day.
As cost is generally an important concern for prepaid plan users, a challenge for telecommunications carriers is to deliver Internet connection at relatively lower “sachet” price points, such as below 20 pesos daily—yet still providing prepaid plan users an “always on” experience, i.e. internet on demand. While this may be possible for certain phones which are efficient in terms of consuming data bandwidth, it is typically difficult to implement such “sachet” price points for more recent smartphones models which require relatively higher data bandwidth. There is thus a need to capture the market of these smartphone users by providing them with certain flexibility in controlling and adjusting their data bandwidth usage so as to implement such “sachet” price points.
Although it is possible for prepaid plan users to control data bandwidth and monitor their bandwidth usage, known control mechanisms in place are “all or nothing” approaches, i.e. data access may only be switched from either “all”—maximum data bandwidth, or “nothing”—no data bandwidth. The user does not have the flexibility in controlling different levels of data bandwidth as and when he/she desires, depending on his/her usage.
The present invention seeks to provide a system and method that alleviates the above mentioned drawbacks at least in part.